America Abroad

What Good Friends Are For

The U.S. has "special relationships" with half a dozen or so countries. Near the top of the list are Israel and Japan. The U.S. was instrumental in the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, and almost 6 million American Jews $ could be automatically entitled to citizenship there. The case of Japan is more ambiguous but no less special. The U.S. used A-bombs to finish off a militaristic empire, then helped rebuild what has become an economic superpower.

Both relationships are strained these days. The Likud government's commitment to the de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, hence to...